Bin Laden Killing Celebrated as Officials Prepare for Reprisals

This is a video-grab image of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Muslim terrorist group al-Qaeda, which was displayed on Al-Jazeera television while an audio tape was played. The speaker on the tape, believed by a US government official to be authentic, praised recent terrorist attacks in Moscow and Bali. The tape was broadcast yesterday by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network. Source: Al-Jazeera TV via Bloomberg News

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- The killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden by U.S. special forces put American and allied
officials on guard against possible reprisals as they vowed to
maintain the fight against terrorism.

“Though bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda is not,” CIA Director
Leon Panetta, who oversaw the overnight mission to kill bin
Laden, said today in a statement sent to agency employees. “The
terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge him, and we
must -- and will -- remain vigilant and resolute.”

Bin Laden was killed almost 10 years after orchestrating
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed almost 3,000 people at
the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in suburban
Washington and in a field in Pennsylvania, where hijacked United
Airlines Flight 93 crashed. He was killed after a decade on the
run in a firefight with a team of U.S. operatives who raided the
compound in Pakistan where he had been hiding.

“On nights like this one we can say to those families who
have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda’s terror: Justice has been
done,” President Barack Obama said in a late-night televised
address from the White House.

Bin Laden, 54, eluded American forces that invaded
Afghanistan following the 2001 attacks, escaping across the
mountainous border with Pakistan. U.S. intelligence last August
picked up his trail in Pakistan after years of “painstaking”
work, then tracked him to a compound in Abbottabad, a city north
of Islamabad, Obama said.

Obama’s Authorization

“Finally, last week, I determined that we had enough
intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get
Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice,” he said.

Central Intelligence Agency specialists used photo
identification techniques and DNA tests to positively identify
bin Laden’s body, U.S. officials told reporters at a briefing.
In addition, a woman believed to be bin Laden’s wife also
identified him by name, the officials said, speaking on
condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The body was taken out of Pakistan by the special forces
team. The officials said it was washed and wrapped in a white
sheet in a process that followed Islamic traditions. It
eventually was placed in a weighted bag and buried in the North
Arabian Sea, the officials said.

Obama Informed

Obama was informed about the initial identification just
after 7 p.m. last night and later was shown a photograph of the
scene, an administration official said.

Global stocks rose and crude oil dropped the most in almost
three weeks after Obama’s announcement. The Standard & Poor’s
500 Index advanced 0.3 percent at 10:10 a.m. in New York. U.S.
and German government bonds declined. Crude oil tumbled as much
as 2.7 percent.

The hunt for Bin Laden stoked international tensions with
the U.S. over how to defeat the Taliban and other terrorist
groups. Pakistani leaders have condemned the use of U.S. drones
to target militants along the Afghan border, while Vice
President Joe Biden in January told Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gilani that “al-Qaeda and its allies have found refuge in your
country.”

Pakistan Location

Abbottabad, a city of about 100,000 people within 35 miles
of the capital Islamabad, is the center of a region dominated by
army facilities and weapons factories. The city, named for the
British colonial officer who founded it, has avoided the
terrorist attacks that have struck Lahore, Karachi and other
major Pakistani cities.

U.S. officials said they didn’t share their intelligence
with any other country, including Pakistan, and only a small
group of people in the government knew the plans.

Terrorists “belonging to different organizations find
sanctuary in Pakistan,” Indian Home Minister Palaniappan
Chidambaram said in a statement today in reaction to the news.
Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement that bin Laden’s
death was a “major setback” to terrorist groups.

The State Department issued an alert to U.S. citizens
traveling abroad to warn of potential anti-American violence as
a result of the raid. Security around the U.S. consulate in
Karachi was increased, with police and paramilitary forces
taking positions and setting up check posts outside the
building.

‘Revenge Attacks’

“In the immediate term, there will be some retaliation,
there will be some revenge attacks,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head
of the Singapore-based International Center for Political
Violence and Terrorism Research. He said al-Qaeda’s operational
structure will remain intact under Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin
Laden’s top lieutenant.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, while calling
the killing of bin Laden “a significant success,” said in a
statement from alliance headquarters in Brussels that
“terrorism continues to pose a direct threat to our security.”

Pakistan’s Taliban said bin Laden was still alive and
reports of his death were baseless, Karachi-based GEO Television
reported, citing a statement from the group.

Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, made
capturing bin Laden key to national security.

Obama said that shortly after taking office in 2009, he
directed CIA chief Panetta to make the killing or capture of bin
Laden the “top priority” in the war against al-Qaeda. In
August, Obama was briefed on a possible lead, he said.

Secure Compound

The intelligence ultimately revealed that bin Laden was
living in a home in a secure compound in Abbottabad, according
to administration officials who briefed reporters after Obama
spoke. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in
discussing the planning of the raid, said the compound was
valued at about $1 million and was built roughly five years ago
for the purpose of harboring bin Laden.

The three-story compound had security measures including
walls as high as 18 feet and topped with barbed wire, the
officials said. Access was restricted by two security gates and
residents burned their trash instead of leaving it out for
collection like the other homes in the neighborhood. There were
no phone or Internet connections, according to the officials.

Officials said they didn’t know for certain how long bin
Laden had been living there.

The president gave the go-ahead for the operation early in
the morning of April 29, according to one of the officials.

Navy Commandos

The helicopter raid carrying U.S. Navy SEAL commandos was
ordered by Panetta, who monitored the operation from his
seventh-floor command center at CIA headquarters in McLean,
Virginia, a U.S. official said. Officials said the raid was
designed to minimize risk to non-combatants in the compound. At
least two helicopters were used; one had mechanical problems.

The operation, which began around midnight local time,
lasted less than 40 minutes. Three other adult males were killed
in addition to bin Laden, officials said. One woman was killed
when she was used as a human shield by a male combatant, the
officials said.

Express 24/7, a Lahore, Pakistan-based television station,
showed footage of what it said was a compound in Abbottabad in
flames. Several Pakistani television stations broadcast what
they said was a still photograph of bin Laden’s body, with his
face smeared with blood and his left eye mutilated.

Reaching a Goal

“Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do
whatever we set our mind to,” Obama, 49, said. “That is the
story of our history.”

Obama warned that the fight against terrorism isn’t ended
with the death of bin Laden.

“There’s no doubt that al-Qaeda will continue to pursue
attacks against us,” he said.

Even before Obama spoke, a cheering, chanting crowd
gathered outside the north gates of the White House as news of
bin Laden’s death spread. The throng of people continued to grow
after midnight along Pennsylvania Avenue.

“It’s been 10 years, it’s really a rallying point that
we’ve been successful with what we’ve been doing abroad,” said
Glen Dalakian, 21, a student at American University, who was
among those gathered in front of the White House this morning.
“It makes you proud to be an American waving the flag once
again.”

Obama called Bush to inform him about the raid.

“I congratulated him and the men and women of our military
and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this
mission,” the former president said in a statement. “This
momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people
who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost
loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001.”

Boehner Commends Obama

The administration briefed congressional officials before
the president’s address.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he
wanted to “commend President Obama and his team, as well as
President Bush, for all of their efforts to bring Osama bin
Laden to justice.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the killing of bin
Laden a success for the “forces of peace.”

“But this doesn’t mean that international terrorism has
been defeated,” Merkel said in a statement in Berlin. “We all
must remain alert.”

“The news that Osama bin Laden is dead will bring great
relief to people across the world,” U.K Prime Minister David
Cameron said in a statement congratulating Obama and the U.S.
personnel who conducted the raid.

“Osama bin Laden was responsible for the worst terrorist
atrocities the world has seen -- for 9/11 and for so many
attacks, which have cost thousands of lives, many of them
British,” Cameron said in an e-mailed statement. “It is a
great success that he has been found and will no longer be able
to pursue his campaign of global terror.”

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters in
Canberra that “whilst al-Qaeda has been hurt today, al-Qaeda is
not finished.” Australian embassies and consulates have been
told to heighten security awareness, she said.